


Empty Threats

by draconid



Category: Thrilling Intent (Web Series)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, F/M, Past Character Death, i honestly dont know how to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 04:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5320022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/draconid/pseuds/draconid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Come on, Ashe. If you were going to kill me, you would have already done it.”</p>
<p>He smiled up at her as softly as he could, but his words were still marred by ragged, ugly coughs and the blood that came with them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Empty Threats

**Author's Note:**

> ME? WRITING ANGST? It's almost like that's all I do.
> 
> Reposting from tumblr. Enjoy.

“Come on, Ashe. If you were going to kill me, you would have already done it.”

He smiled up at her as softly as he could, but his words were still marred by ragged, ugly coughs and the blood that came with them. He never looked away from her face as they tore through his body, relighting thousands of points of pain from his throat  down through his bruised chest to his twisted leg (Fuck, was that bone?) but it stopped there – shit, he couldn’t feel his right foot. Fuck, fuck. _Fuck_. A thousand and one thoughts ran through his head and he was sure some of his fear was showing through, but he did his best to find the mask he always wore and put it on one last time.

For Ashe.

Her face twisted into a grimace. She stood over him as he held onto the old, rotten wood of Nine Shrines, as if clutching so desperately onto the wood of their old home would make the old her come back. As if things weren’t over yet. As if it would make Gregor’s corpse rise back from the dead to defend him, or summon Thog’s practicality and gun from beyond death’s door.

As if he could survive this, as if he could get her back, as if this wasn’t the end.

The thought made her laugh, but it was a hollow thing. It dropped like a boulder into the tense atmosphere, made his wings twitch as he bit his lip and watched her with apprehension and a faint flicker of hope. Hope! He still had hope, the sentimental _idiot_! Thog and Gregor were dead and he was going to die, too, and yet he still found it in him to look up at her with those sky blue eyes like she was the only star he’d ever seen. Fuck, how _stupid_ could he be? _She_ was gone, _they_ were gone. She was _empty_!

“Aesling..?”

She was crying, now. Shoulders shaking, breath as ragged as his own. Her laughing had turned to hiccuped sobs as she stood there in front of him, covered in blood, just shaking and sobbing but never letting go of that knife. Groaning with pain, he gripped the wood harder and used it to pull himself up, putting all of his weight onto his good leg as he tried desperately to ignore the pain raging through his right.

Ashe snapped to as he moved, choking on another sob as she raised her head up to stare at him. Her eyes were so dull, her face quickly settling into something stony and impassive. The only sign of expression were the tear trails through the dried blood and grime that coated her skin and the way her eyes still shimmered with the tears that had left them. She raised her arms almost methodically, falling into a battle stance he’d seen her use countless times before. Her bindings glowed with a soft green light, one he had always connected with healing and warmth and the electric connection he always, always felt when he was near her.

“Hey, Ashe –“ Another coughing fit. He was surprised when it was over that she was still standing there, knees and elbows bent, knife clutched in her hand, just staring. “Hey. I know you’re still there, Ashe.”

“You don’t.” Her voice was raw and small, as if it was trying to take up as little room as possible.

“Of course I do.”

“I’m gone, Markus.” There was a tremble, a tearing in her words as she choked back a sob or a scream, he couldn’t tell. “There’s – there’s nothing left.”

“You’re not empty, Aesling.” He cut her off before she could protest, his words growing with intensity. “No, listen to me. You were crying, Ashe! And laughing, no matter how disconnected from it you felt, you were there – you’re here. You’re here, Ashe, and I’m here. Gregor and Thog might –“ At this his voice wavered, “They might be gone.  But that doesn’t mean you – that doesn’t mean that I’ve lost you, too. I can’t lose you, Ashe.”

His words hung heavy between them for a moment before he tried to push against the wall and take a hop forward, but he stumbled and began to fall and – and she caught him, stared at him. Faintly, Markus heard the knife clatter to the ground, but he was more concerned with the fear he saw on her face.

“I can’t lose you, either.”

And then they were both on the ground, his momentum pulling them both to the cold dirt. Markus cried out as he felt something else in his leg snap, Ashe gasped as she sent her hand out to catch her fall and it was cut by the fallen knife.

They sat there in silence for a time, just breathing next to each other, staring at the sky as it slowly darkened.

“I couldn’t save them.” The words were out before she could stop them, barely more than a whisper. “I tried so fucking hard to save them but I couldn’t, they were just too hurt, and I knew you were hurt, too, and I didn’t care and I knew I couldn’t save you either and I didn’t want to have to _care_ anymore, Markus, I didn’t want to have to care about anything and I thought if I –“ She broke down, crying again. Grimacing with the pain, Markus propped himself up against the wall and drew her close, feeling her heart beat and her chest rise and fall with her trembling breaths.

“I thought if I was the one to kill you it would – it would change something. If I did it, I wouldn’t have to care about any of it anymore. Or maybe so I _would_ care, spirits, I don’t know anymore.” Markus wrapped her in his arms, ignoring how sore they were, and rest his head on hers.

“Just let me be here for you. For once, Ashe, just let me hold you.”

They stayed that way until the sky ran red with dusk.


End file.
